PRIVACY

Who runs this?

Neon Stick Fight is a free game made by Scott Pierce as a side project. It lives at neonstickfight.com (it used to be at askscottpierce.com/stick-fight). If you have a question about anything on this page, email hey@askscottpierce.com.

Do I need an account?

No. Arcade, horde, training, quick online matches, crews and watching other matches all work without one. When you play online, the game hands you a nickname (like GUEST 427) or lets you pick one. That nickname and a random player id are kept on your device, not on our server.

Saving your profile with an email is optional. It lets you sign in on another phone or computer and keep the same name, crews and records.

What do we collect?

Game counts (everyone)

While you play, the game sends small notes to our server, like "someone picked COURIER in arcade" or "a match ended by KO after 64 seconds." They're how we know which fighters are too strong and which modes people play. Each note says:

• what happened (a pick, a match, a move used, a stage reached), the fighters, and numbers like hits and match length;
• how smoothly the game runs on your device (frame times), once a visit;
• whether you're on a phone or a computer, and which website sent you here (just the site's name);
• the country you're in, which Cloudflare (the company that runs our servers) works out from your connection.

They never carry your name, email, player id or internet address. The game doesn't send them at all if your browser has Do Not Track or Global Privacy Control turned on. The notes are deleted after three months. We also keep running totals (how many times each fighter was picked, who wins which matchup). Those are just numbers with no player in them, so they stay. They're what the stats on the homepage show.

Page views (everyone)

The site uses a page counter called Plausible (at plausible.ljs.app). It counts visits to each page without cookies and without keeping your internet address.

Your saved profile (only if you save it)

• Your email address, so we can send you a 6-digit sign-in code. We don't use it for anything else.
• Your random player id, your nickname, the crews you've been in (up to 20), and the size you picked for the touch controls.
• When you first saved it and when you last signed in.
• While you're signing in: the code, stored scrambled (a hash) so not even we can read it. It expires in 10 minutes.
• One cookie, sf_session, which keeps you signed in for 30 days. Its server copy is scrambled too.
• To stop people guessing codes, we count sign-in tries per email and per internet address. Those counters are cleared out after about a day.

Crews

A crew is a room with a link you share with friends. The crew keeps its name and, for each member: their nickname, a scrambled member id (not their player id), when they first and last showed up, wins, losses, draws, rounds, favorite fighter and last pick, how they've done against each other member, and the last 300 matches (who played who, with which fighters, and the score). Everyone who has the link and opens it can see all of that.

Crew high scores. Each crew has its own arcade and horde tables, the top 10 of each. A finished run is sent to the crews on your device's recent list, and a crew keeps it only if you're a member. A row shows the three initials you entered, the score, the fighter, how far the run got and the date. The server remembers which member sent each row, so it can limit how often you post and mark your own rows in your lobby, but the table never shows other people who sent it.

Crew stats. The crew also adds up time played, matches, the fighters picked most, and each member's time played and favorite fighter. Everyone with the crew link sees these.

Game-wide time and the live count. Every match (and time spent in training) adds to totals of time played per mode per day, and the server counts how many matches are going on right now. Both are just numbers with no player in them.

Quick matches

A quick room (a four-letter code) lives in our server's memory while it's open. Nothing about it is saved, except the match result while both players' games agree on it, and the room is gone within 30 minutes of everyone leaving.

Who can see my name?

• Your rival in an online match sees your nickname.
• Spectators. A quick match can show up under LIVE NOW on the homepage and under WATCH in the game, with both nicknames, for anyone to watch. The host can switch SPECTATORS off on the HOST A GAME screen, and then nobody can watch. Crew matches can never be watched.
• Your crew. Everyone with the crew link sees each member's nickname, record and time played, and the crew's high score tables with the initials on them.
• Link previews. When someone pastes a crew link into a chat app, the preview shows the crew's name and how many members it has. Anyone who gets that link can see this. It never shows members' names.
• High scores. The initials you put on the arcade and horde tables stay on your device, unless you're in a crew: then the crew's tables show them to everyone with that crew's link.
• Your email: nobody but you. Other players never see it.

That's why we say: use a nickname, not your real name, and don't put anyone else's real name in a crew name either.

What about my internet address?

Every device on the internet has an address (an IP address). Online matches connect the two players' devices straight to each other so the fight feels fast, the way video calls do. That means the other player's device can see your internet address while you play. If a direct connection can't be made, the match goes through Cloudflare's relay instead.

We don't store internet addresses, except in the sign-in counters above (about a day) and Cloudflare's own short limits that stop one network from flooding the server. A good rule for online games: play online with people you know.

What gets saved on my device?

The game saves these in your browser's storage, on your device only:

• your profile: the random player id, your nickname, and your recent crews;
• your arcade and horde high scores, and the last fighter you picked;
• your settings: sound, music, round time, rounds per match, botches on or off, touch-control size, and whether spectators may watch your rooms;
• the happy accidents you've found, your record against each online rival (by a random id), and whether you've seen the "add to home screen" tip;
• your answer to the age question, if you said under 13;
• a copy of the game's files, so it can load fast and play offline.

Who else is involved?

• Cloudflare runs our servers, stores the profiles and crews, sends the sign-in emails, keeps the game counts and runs the relay for online matches.
• Plausible counts page views, as above.
• If Cloudflare's relay can't be reached, the game asks a public Cloudflare or Google server to help two devices find each other. That server sees your internet address for a moment.
• The fonts and everything else the pages need come from our own site.

No ad companies, no trackers from social networks, and nothing about you is sold or traded. The game's code is open: you can read every line on GitHub.

How long do we keep things?

How do I delete my stuff?

• On your device: clear the site data for neonstickfight.com (and askscottpierce.com, if you played there before the move) in your browser's settings. That removes your profile, high scores and settings from that device. Signing out also wipes the profile from that device.
• A saved profile: there's no delete button yet. Email hey@askscottpierce.com from the email address you saved, and we'll delete the account, its codes and its sign-ins.
• Your name in a crew: email us the crew link and your nickname, and we'll take your name off. A crew nobody opens for 90 days deletes itself.
• Game counts: they have nothing that ties them to you, so there's nothing of yours in them to find.

For parents

Neon Stick Fight is made for middle schoolers and up, and for fighting game fans of any age. Here's what a child's play leaves behind:

• Nothing tied to who they are, unless they saved a profile with an email. The game counts are anonymous. Their nickname and match records show up only to the people they play with, in the crews they join, and to spectators of public quick matches.
• Under 13, no email. Before the game ever asks for an email, it asks the player's age. A player who answers under 13 isn't asked for an email: their profile stays on their device, and everything in the game still works.
• Nicknames. The game tells players to use a nickname, not their real name, and blocks some words in names. Talk with your child about not sharing their real name, school or other details in names or crew names.
• Online play connects two devices directly, so the other player's device can see your internet address, as in most online games. Playing online with friends they know is a good habit.

To ask us to delete anything, or if you think your child under 13 gave us an email, write to hey@askscottpierce.com with the email address or the crew link. We'll delete it and let you know. We may ask a question first to make sure the request really comes from you.

What if this page changes?

If we change what the game keeps, we'll change this page first and put the new date at the top.